


You Need Me Like A Bad Habit

by readbetweenthelions



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Ficlet, M/M, Song Lyrics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-12
Updated: 2012-10-12
Packaged: 2017-11-16 04:34:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readbetweenthelions/pseuds/readbetweenthelions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce and Tony have a fight and maybe say a few things they meant a little too much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Need Me Like A Bad Habit

**Author's Note:**

> For Bonnie who (essentially, i might be paraphrasing a little) dared me to use the lyrics of One-eighty By Summer by Taking Back Sunday to write what turned out to be a very angsty science boyfriends fic. I’m sorry if this is all terrible and cliched with the whole "using the lyrics as part of the dialogue" thing, but I hope you like it, you masochist.

“Go on, just say it!” Bruce screams, fighting off the swell of green that threatens to drown him. “You need me like a bad habit.”

“Is that all you think you are?” Tony yells. He knows Bruce is dangerously close to the edge, but Tony can’t stop himself. It’s not fair, it’s not fair that Bruce treats himself this way. As if he were a disease, as if he were unlovable. Well, Tony _did_ love him, and the fact that he was leaving was ripping a hole in his heart. “A bad habit?”

“A bad habit,” Bruce spits bitterly. “One that leaves you defenseless, dependent and _alone._ Because that’s what you’ll be if you insist on sticking with me. You’ll be alone. Nothing will be able to protect you, especially not me. You think you need me. You don’t. No one needs me.”

“No,” Tony says, voice bubbling with barely concealed hurt and anger. “You’re more than that. You absolutely lived up to your first impression. You’re the bravest, most brilliant, most talented man I’ve ever met, and I love you. Do you understand that? _I love you!_ ”

This staggers Bruce for a moment. It’s the first time Tony’s said it out loud, the first time either of them have, and it catches Bruce off-guard. He holds his tongue for a moment, distracted from his thoughts by the suddenness of it all.

That’s when Tony says it.

“Why can’t you just be happy?”

Bruce almost loses his fragile grip on the Hulk at this. “Why can’t I be happy, Tony?” Bruce rages, shaking a little at the effort of keeping the Hulk inside, of keeping the beast in his mind from killing one of the only people Bruce cares about. “Because I’m a _fucking monster._ Things aren’t going to turn out alright for me. They were never going to.”

“If you’re not going to stay for me, then at least stay for the team,” Tony says hotly. “Why are you so ashamed to say what you want to? Tell me you want to see all the good you can do for the world if you stay with us, with me, and then tell me you want to leave.”

“For the team, huh?” Bruce says sourly. “Why can’t you live without the attention? All this… we’re just protecting ourselves from ourselves, you with the suit and me with the Hulk, we’re not _helping_ people, we’re just putting off the inevitable. My best side and your worst invention,” Bruce adds sarcastically. He shuts his eyes and swallows hard against the lump of fury that had built in his throat. He tries to assess the damage, from way back when anything mattered. Nothing seemed important anymore. Not the Hulk, not fixing his mistakes, not saving the world – it just seemed pointless, all his obvious lines of thought out of focus.

“Look,” Tony sighs, “I’ll be lost without you. The team… we’ll be nothing. You’re making the difference. We need you. I need you.”

“I’m going, Tony,” Bruce says. He sounds more sure of himself now than he has ever sounded. “And I don’t think I’ll ever come back.”

With those words, Tony knew it was really pointless to argue any more. He could feel his heart breaking as he watched Bruce leave and Tony hoped that someday Bruce might change his mind.


End file.
